A FORMER rear admiral has welcomed the Prime Minister’s announcement that the Royal Navy will take over patrolling the English Channel in an effort to stop an influx of asylum seekers from France.

Chris Parry, who was the first chair of the government’s Marine Management Organisation, said the move could end over a decade of confusion and failure on the issue.

He told GB News that the Navy is well placed to take on the role, following today’s announcement by Boris Johnson about policing the Channel and a deal to send some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing.

Mr Parry said: “The Navy is really good at coordinating these types of operation, both the surveillance and also intersecting. I think it’s worth recalling that the Royal Navy has already been involved in the Mediterranean in both detecting and picking up people from the sea so it’s not something the Navy hasn’t done before

“And bearing in mind this is going to involve probably investment in drones, aircraft and additional patrol boats, I think the Navy’s best place to deal with that.”

Speaking during an interview with Colin Brazier on GB News this afternoon, Mr Parry said the move will end over a decade of confusion.

He said: “One of the biggest problems we’ve got in our offshore zone is several different agencies that are responsible for different things like the Marine Management Organisation, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Border Force, and bringing that all together in a comprehensive approach is the key to actually dealing with this problem.

“Frankly, we’ve been arguing about it for probably ten years and nothing’s happened, so hopefully this will finally bring together all these agencies and make them really sort of go the same way on the same day.”

He added: “It has been left to the Coastguard and Border Force and frankly it hasn’t worked.

“So let’s bring in the professionals who were used to coordinating these complex operations and see and see if they can do better.”